Learning about Weddings

One of the first difficult things for me to understand about Dagara culture was the fact that they don't have a clear line regarding marriage. One's marriage becomes legitimate over time as various requirements are met. A bride price has to be paid. A child has to be conceived and born. But there is no ceremony that says, "Before, this couple was not married, but NOW they are."

This is why I really enjoyed celebrating Yawmbacere's marriage to Kristine in Nakar today - they are the two with their hands being raised like they just won a boxing match. Yawmbacere has had a wife for years before he became a Christian and now he wants to make the promise before God and the whole Nakar church to be the kind of husband God made him to be. As testimony to the fact that they have no precedent for this, they asked, AT THE CEREMONY, not before, if I or Donatien or Severen knew how to do one of these things. I gave Donatien a few ideas and he went with them well.